The present invention relates to fiber amplifiers having filter means for attenuating or removing unwanted wavelengths and to fiber optic filters for use in such amplifiers.
Doped optical fiber amplifiers consist of an optical fiber the core of which contains a dopant such as rare earth ions. Such an amplifier receives an optical signal of wavelength .lambda..sub.s and a pump signal of wavelength .lambda..sub.p which are combined by means such as one or more couplers located at one or both ends of the amplifier. The spectral gain of a fiber amplifier is not uniform through the entire emission band. For example, an erbium doped fiber, the gain band of which coincides with the 1550 nm telecommunications window of silica fiber, has a gain spectrum that is typically irregular, with a narrow peak around 1536 nm and a broad band with reduced gain at longer wavelengths.
The ability to modify the gain spectrum of a fiber amplifier is useful. Two modifications are of interest: (1) gain flattening and (2) gain narrowing. Gain flattening is of interest for such applications as wavelength division multiplexing. Gain narrowing is of interest because although the amplifier can be operated at wavelengths away from the peak gain without gain narrowing, disadvantages occur due to increased spontaneous-spontaneous beat noise and possible laser action at the peak gain wavelength.
Various techniques have been used for flattening the gain spectrum. An optical notch filter having a Lorentzian spectrum can be placed at the output of the erbium doped gain fiber to attenuate the narrow peak. A smooth gain spectrum can be obtained, but with no increase in gain at longer wavelengths.
Another filter arrangement is disclosed in the publication, M. Tachibana et al. "Gain-Shaped Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA) with Broad Spectral Bandwidth", Topical Meeting on Amplifiers and Their Applications, Optical Society of America, 1990 Technical Digest Series, Vol. 13, Aug. 6-8, 1990, pp. 44-47. An optical notch filter is incorporated in the middle of the amplifier by sandwiching a short length of amplifier fiber between a mechanical grating and a flat plate. This induces a resonant coupling at a particular wavelength between core mode and cladding leaky modes which are subsequently lost. Both the center wavelength and the strength of the filter can be tuned. The overall gain spectrum and saturation characteristics are modified to be nearly uniform over the entire 1530-1560 nm band. By incorporating the optical filter in the middle of the erbium doped fiber amplifier, the amplifier efficiency is improved for longer signal wavelengths.